This invention relates to a hand-held printer and relates to a method for printing one print line at a time using a hand-held printer.
A thermal-transfer type handy printer that printing is conducted by moving the printing head by hand has been proposed (for example, Japanese patent application laid-open No. 2-2029 (1990)). In such a conventional hand-held printer, printing is conducted by moving the printer in a certain direction and thereby forwarding a print film while pressing the thermal head against the surface of a paper or an article to be printed.
Thus, in the conventional hand-held printer, the thermal head needs to be pressed through the print film against a print surface with a relatively high pressure because it employs the thermal transfer system. However, it is difficult to keep the pressure constant. Further, it is very difficult to keep the moving speed constant because the printing head needs to be moved in a certain direction by hand. Therefore, accuracy or concentration in printing cannot be stabilized.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a hand-held printer that can give enhanced printing quality without requiring high pressure.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a hand-held printer that can stably provide a single high-quality printer line.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method for printing one print line by using a hand-held printer that can give enhanced printing quality without requiring high pressure.
According to the invention, a hand-held printer, comprises:
an ink jet head with a plurality of aligned ink nozzles;
means for moving the ink jet head in the orthogonal direction to the aligned direction of the plurality of ink nozzles;
a printer case that covers a movable range of ink jet head and has an opening on the side facing the plurality of ink nozzles; and
a handle provided on the printer case.
According to another aspect of the invention, a hand-held printer, comprises:
a printer head and a holder for holding the printer head;
wherein the printer head comprises an ink jet head with a plurality of aligned ink nozzles, means for moving the ink jet head in the orthogonal direction to the aligned direction of the plurality of ink nozzles, a printer case that covers a movable range of the ink jet head and has an opening on the side of the plurality of ink nozzles, and a handle provided on the printer case, and the holder comprises means for receiving the printer head, and means for covering the plurality of ink nozzles of the ink jet head when the printer is received into the receiving means.
According to another aspect of the invention, a method for printing one print line by using a hand-held printer with a handle, comprises the steps of:
receiving print data corresponding to one print line; and
discharging ink from a plurality of aligned ink nozzles on an ink jet head of the hand-held printer while moving the ink jet head in the orthogonal direction to the aligned direction of the plurality of ink nozzles according to the print data.